216: BTS of a Freelance Book Editor's Business

 

Ever wonder what it’s really like to run a freelance book editing business? In this episode, I answer five common questions I’m asked as a book editor and share a behind-the-scenes look at how my business works.

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BTS of a Freelance Book Editor's Business

 

Hi friends, welcome back to Your Big Creative Life Podcast. I'm excited to do this episode talking about some behind the scenes of my business. If you are someone who is looking to start freelancing, whether it's editing or something else, or you're new, or maybe you're just curious about the behind the scenes and how all of this works, hopefully this will be insightful. This is something that I don't talk about much on social media or the podcast, honestly, because it's just not my content. I'm not making content for other freelancers, but I'm always happy to talk about this because I appreciated transparency from other, you know, freelancers and business owners when I was getting started. And just for some context, I started editing a number of years ago just as a side hustle and started out on Fiverr, which is a freelancing platform. And I've been doing this now. I built up my client list and my revenue and started posting on TikTok when that became a thing and just kind of grew from there. And I've been doing this full time now. I quit my... Nine to five job in March of 2022.

So it's been almost four years that I've been doing this full-time. I'm a full-time solopreneur, which means it's just me. I'm the only like employee in my LLC in my business. I do have an amazing assistant who helps me out a few hours a week with like content stuff and podcasts and other projects for the business. But she's a contractor. She's not, I don't have like payroll in the sense that she's not an employee of mine or anything. She just does it. as like a side hustle. So yeah, that's some context. I have a couple of other episodes about the podcast that are like kind of my story about how I got started, if you're interested in that. But I want to dive into some frequently asked questions in this episode specifically, because here's the reason for this podcast. I've been having a few, let me just move my chair. I've been having a few conversations on Instagram with two new freelancers, new editors who are like getting their businesses started. And then also I was talking with an editor friend of mine. She is a freelancer as well. She does this as a side hustle. She's got a full-time job, but she's honestly been editing probably as long as I have. And we were talking about some business related things. And I don't know, I just felt like, you know, maybe I'll do a podcast episode about this. So I am so happy to talk to other freelancers about this.

I'm so happy to support them because it can be very difficult in the beginning when you were trying to build up a business and you were trying to get your name out there, you're trying to get clients. It can feel like such a slog and it can feel like it's never going to happen for you that you will forever just be making, you know, like $500 a month and like never really get momentum. And the biggest way that I've been able to do that is through content marketing, through social media, through the podcast. So I just want to say like, if you you're in the early stages of it, I know it can feel hard. I know it can feel like you are screaming into the void. No one is hearing you. You're like, I'm good at what I do. Like, please, someone just hire me. Just give me a chance. I know that feeling. And you just have to be resilient. You have to be persistent and trust that if you put in the work, it will happen. So I'm doing this episode #1 because I know what it's like to be in that place. And I just have been having these conversations with new freelancers lately. And overall, like 99% of my experience with other freelancers with other editors has been amazing. Other freelancers, I don't view them as competition. I think we're all in community. I think there's enough work to go around. And there's plenty of room for new editors to come into things as well.

One note I will just give is I mean, this is not going to be something new. If you've followed me or listened to the podcast before, you know I've talked about this. There's some uncertainty in this industry around AI and what impact ChatGPT or other tools that writers are unfortunately using TBD on what things are going to look like in five or 10 years. None of us really knows. So yes, I do think this is still a good industry to get into, but there's always a note of caution with it that I just don't know what things are going to look like in the future. And so I think you have to go into this with your eyes open. If you're a new freelancer of any kind, I mean, if you're hoping to get into copywriting, that has absolutely been transformed by AI. If you're hoping to get into graphic design or social media, all of these these industries have been absolutely changed by AI. And so you do have to have some awareness around that. And you have to accept a level of risk and uncertainty being a freelancer. It's just the nature of the game. But anyways, what I was going to say is 99% of my interactions with other freelancers have been incredible. And I view it all, us all as like a community. And it's just, yeah. So I'm happy to share what I know and to put this out there and offer some transparency.

Okay, so number one, I have like 5 frequently asked questions that I've gotten from new freelancers, editors, or just even like clients, honestly, who are kind of curious about a freelancing business. Okay, number one, have you ever gotten ghosted by a client like they just didn't pay you? And this is coming from editors who are in this situation, unfortunately, and wondering what they can do about it. In all of the years that I've been doing this, I've been very fortunate, knock on wood, This has only happened once where a client has just straight up not paid. And it was a coaching client. It was a six month program. Y'all, this person made-up the most, I don't even want to tell you what she told me. It was the most absurd reason. for why she wasn't responding to my emails that were coming from my project management system called HoneyBook. And HoneyBook lets you, can see when people open your emails. So I saw that she was opening all of my payment reminder emails, my late payment emails, my, like, I saw that she was opening all of those, and yet I just didn't hear from her for a few weeks, and then she made-up the most absurd excuse about a prison, whatever, it doesn't matter. Anyways, so that's the only, that's the only client I've had who just straight up didn't pay, which is hard. It is extremely difficult because when you're a freelancer, it's not like you're some massive corporation where like, yeah, some loss of income is just like, you know, a drop in the bucket and it sucks, but you're gonna be fine.

When you are a freelancer and this is your revenue, this is your, how you make money, it's a big deal to have a client just straight up not pay. It impacts everything. So it sucks and it's frustrating. And I hear that. My biggest way that I make sure that clients, of course, there's no 100% guarantee, but my method for ensuring that clients are, you know, more likely to pay, I suppose, is to put almost all of my clients on auto pay. 90% of my clients are on payment plans. For editing and for coaching, I require a 25% deposit up front when we sign the contract. Or sometimes I just set a flat amount if we're not sure, like for editing what the final word count of the manuscript will be. So we're not sure what the final cost of it is going to be. But there's some kind of deposit usually that's required at the time of signing the contract. And then the remaining 75% for editing at least can be spread out into monthly payments at no extra charge. And what I do for those clients who are on those payment plans is I put them on auto pay. So they get an e-mail reminder that their payment is coming out and it automatically, HoneyBook, my project management system handles all of that. I don't have to chase them down. I don't have to send them like PayPal links or anything shady. I just, HoneyBook automates all of that. They take care of the credit cards. I don't see any credit card numbers. I don't do credit card processing. HoneyBook takes care of all of that. Invoices, contracts, reporting, all of it. So there's an element of just like, it's automated, they're on auto pay, clients know they're on auto pay, everyone's happy. And it works out for the clients, right? Because they can spread their payments out over several months. Now what I'll do generally, I've kind of shifted how I've navigated this over the years, but with new clients, if they are on a payment plan, I will do the 25% deposit and then the first payment will be due like the week that I start the project.

So that way if something happens and I finish the manuscript and I send it back to them and they for some reason don't pay the rest of it, at least have gotten a good percentage of it, 50, 60% of the payment. It's not everything, but in the event that something does happen where I don't get the rest of the money, at least I've gotten some to compensate me for the work that I did. But again, this is just not, I've been lucky. I think this has only happened once in all the years I've been doing this. I've had some late payments, but I understand that happens and it's fine. I'm willing to work with people. So yeah, so I think that's a big way to just make sure that clients are paying you is to put people on auto pay and also require some of the money up front as a deposit when you sign the contract.

Number 2, how to ensure clients pay or pay on time. I guess I guess I answered that one with the auto pay and, you know, payment reminders and everything. Next question, next frequently asked question is project management system recommendations. I've had some new editors or new freelancers generally who are like, how do I, what do I go with for all of this? Because there's a lot on the administrative side of things, on the payment side of things that you have to manage when you're a freelancer. And I think it is important to present a professional, presence. It is important to present yourself as a business owner, as a professional, even if you're just doing this on the side and building up your business and you've worked with exactly 2 clients. The client that you're working with, the new client doesn't have to know that. You need to have some sort of project management system that handles contracts. You absolutely have to have a contract. That is another way to ensure. Well, it doesn't ensure, but to make it more likely. let's say, that you can get paid from your clients, have a contract, have an invoicing system, don't send a PayPal link or a Venmo request. That just looks shady. It's gonna look like you're a scammer. I use something called HoneyBuck, which I've mentioned before in this episode. It's amazing. It's like, I can't remember what it is. Maybe around 50 bucks a month. It's not crazy. maybe 60, I don't know. But again, it has invoicing.

My coaching clients schedule their coaching calls through HoneyBook, so it links to my calendar. All my contracts are there. My new client inquiry form on my website, when people fill that out, it syncs with HoneyBook, and then it sends me an e-mail notification saying, hey, so-and-so filled out this new client inquiry. So everything goes through that, and it's just really nice to have that professional way of doing it. And again, it cuts down on the work for me. I don't have to send payment reminders via e-mail. I don't have to keep track of contracts on my end, like on my computer or something. HoneyBook just handles all of that. So that's what I recommend. There are multiple other systems out there that you could look at, but I've used HoneyBook from the beginning and it just works so well. I have everything in there now that I just don't feel the need to go search out anything. So that's what I would recommend. Next question is setting boundaries around... I had a conversation with a new freelancer around like setting boundaries with clients so that there's not something called scope, like what's the word, scope increase, scope creep, something like that, where basically the client starts asking for more. than what was initially agreed upon. Like, oh, well, can you just do this other thing for me? Can you add this thing in? Like, oh, just real quick, can you look at this one thing? And it starts to go beyond the scope of what was originally agreed upon. And this is where contracts are essential. And for editing, I will say, like, I've never, maybe a handful of times I've had clients who feel very needy and entitled to more than what we agreed upon.

But with editing and coaching, it's pretty cut and dry. Like clients have signed a contract. They know Whether they are signing a contract, let's just say for editing, for example, they're hiring me to do my manuscript evaluation or copy editing on a certain number of words. Let's just say it's 90,000 words. So then if they send me a manuscript when our editing date rolls around, I'm like, hey, I'm ready to start your project, send me the book. If they send me a manuscript that is now 140,000 words, that's fine. I will still edit it for them, but I'm gonna send them an invoice for the additional word count. That's 50,000 extra words. So I will invoice them for that and update the contract to reflect that new work. word count. So that they're not just like under the impression that I'm just going to edit another 50,000 words for free. Or let's say, I don't know, a client does one type of editing, like the manuscript evaluation that I offer, which is my developmental type of editing, they're not going to ask for me to also just clean up the grammar while I'm at it. That's not that's not how that works. There are two different types of editing done at two different stages of the books like life cycle. So that's not that's not how that works. It's all outlined in the contract and the invoice clients are very clear on what they're getting.

So that's a way to avoid that. And then if you have to set a boundary, you can be like, you know, I stated in the contract, this is what I'm offering you. I'm happy to provide this additional service for you. Here's the turnaround time. Here's the deliverable. Here's how much it's going to cost. And just be very, you know, clear and kind. direct with them. That's fine. Clients will, you know, I found at least in my experience, clients are totally receptive to that. They understand. Again, I'm, it's very, I've had very few clients who were pushy and wanted more than what we agreed upon. It's pretty rare. Because writers are wonderful people on the whole, like they're respectful, they get it, they're not trying to like take advantage and, you know, get more out of the editor than what was agreed upon. So Yeah. I think the other thing that helps with setting boundaries is you as a business owner, having boundaries around your time. So not checking e-mail and responding to e-mail at 10 P.m. or on weekends if that's not what you want to do. And I recommend even when you are a new freelancer who is just doing this as a side hustle, I recommend practicing now, setting these boundaries so that you are not available 24-7 for your clients. My clients know I don't schedule coaching calls on the weekend. Sometimes I do editing work on the weekends, but I'm not like in touch with clients on the weekends. I also don't, I have Foxer, which is an app that I use to check in with my coaching clients. They have access to me Monday through Friday, and I check it once a day. And I let them know when we work together, like, hey, Around 9 A.m. Eastern time is when I check this app for messages from my coaching clients. And I will respond to you during that time. So if you message me later, if you message me at noon, if you message me at 11 P.m., if you message me at 4 A.m., that's fine. I have my notifications turned off for that app. So I won't even see that you messaged me until the next day when I check that.

So I have very clear boundaries around that and my clients know that so that I'm not available 20 24-7 at the drop of a hat because it's just not healthy for me. It's not healthy for anyone to be constantly available. And that has never, I've never had an issue with that. Honestly, clients are very like, I think because I am, I do check it once a day, Monday through Friday. So like I'm very available. It's just, I'm not. always available. So you have to set those boundaries around your time and don't feel guilt or shame or anything for pushing back because you have to fiercely protect your energy and time as a business owner. Because otherwise what happens is you get spread too thin, you start to get resentful of your clients for demanding too much of your time and energy when really you should be the one dictating that. You should be the one setting the boundaries around what you're able to accommodate and do for your clients. and when you were off work. That's another thing that's challenging about doing this full-time is there are no set hours in the same way that you have it at 9 to 5. So you have to be in charge of that and be fierce about protecting your non-work hours because no one else is going to do that for you.

Okay, another question I got, let me just look at something here. Okay. The final question I got or something I want to touch on is just like how to bring in more revenue or a pricing breakdown about how to make more in your editing business since you can only make so much editing a book. And this is something I'm happy to talk about because there's an income, there's a revenue ceiling with book editing and any work that you have to do for clients one-on-one. I can only edit so many books in a month. I cannot edit, 12 books a month, like to make more money. It's just not possible. Editing takes a long time. It takes a lot of focus. I would be working insane hours and spreading myself way too thin and honestly not doing my best work if I had to edit that many books per month. So you have to understand what your threshold is. And this is something that might shift the more experience you gain. It depends on what type of editing you're doing. It depends on the types of books that you're editing, the genre. There's a lot that plays into this, so I can't tell you what your limit is going to be in terms of... your bandwidth and how many books you can take on. But I get why people are asking this, and I've had conversations with new editors about this, where my recommendation is to add in something else, another revenue stream that is not you editing a book for a client. And what we're going to do is I'm going to talk you through an example and a breakdown of this from a revenue standpoint of why this is important.

Let's say for the sake of this example, let's say that you are editing 3 books a month. That is your threshold. You're like, I feel good about this. Three books a month, awesome. Let's just say for the sake of simplicity too, that all three of those books are 100,000 words and you're doing a developmental type of edit, my manuscript evaluation, I'm just pricing it what I would price it. And my manuscript evaluation is 1.5 cents per word. So that works out to $4,500. So each of those, you're going to be getting $1,500 from each of those clients. Now, if your clients are on payment plans, you're not going to see that $4,500 from those three clients in one month. That's going to be spread out. But let's just say for the sake of simplicity in this argument that all three of those clients pay up front, they pay 100%, they don't need a payment plan. So you have $4,500 of revenue coming into your business for that month because you're editing those three books. Now, if you're not a freelancer or you're not a business owner, you might be like, wow, you're getting $4,500. That's a lot of money. That's awesome. Well, no, that's not what you're taking home. $4,500. When you are a freelancer, when you're self-employed, you have to reserve taxes, more taxes than you would if you are working for someone else. Because when you're working, when you're an employee, your employer is taking on some of that for you so you don't have to withhold as much. I set aside 30%. This is not, This is not legal or accounting advice, by the way. I'm just doing this for an illustration, for example purposes, okay?

So let's say you set aside 30% of that for taxes. State, local taxes, federal taxes, whatever. So automatically, out of that $4,500, oops, let me zero out my calculator. Okay, so $4,500, times 30% is 1350. So automatically, right out of the gate, 1350 of that 4,500 is coming out for taxes. And then let's also say you have expenses that you need to pay in your business. You have to pay for your website. You have to pay for your e-mail service provider. You have to pay for your project management system like HoneyBook. You have to pay for maybe some social media tools for contracts. You have to pay accounting or legal software like QuickBooks. You've got to pay for, I don't know, I pay for podcast stuff, I pay my assistant. There are a lot of business expenses that you're going to have, even if you're doing this on a budget, even if you're doing it as a solopreneur, you are still going to have some expenses that are just non-negotiable. So let's just say 15% of that is for your business expenses, which is $675. So $4,500 minus 675, minus, what did I say, 1350? I think that was it. So after expenses and taxes, you are left with $2,475. But you also have to remember that you need to save a bit. You need to have a business savings account, or you don't need to, but I recommend it. And if you're doing this full-time, you also need to have some kind of retirement account because you don't have an employer who is, you know, contributing to a 401k for you or doing some kind of match. So let's say that you set aside 10% for your retirement, and then you contribute $100 a month into a business savings account.

That way, if something goes wrong, your revenue's down one month, you're okay. So 2,475 minus, let's just say 250 for our retirement minus 100 for savings equals $2,125. That is what you are left with, $2,125. That could all be your paycheck. You could choose to take that as a paycheck. It's not a huge paycheck, though. especially if you live in a city with a high cost of living. That's just not, it's just not a lot. So hopefully that example illustrates why, yeah, it might be a good idea to bring in some other forms of revenue. This can be coaching. Coaching is still one-on-one, you know, service that you're providing for people. It can also be digital products. Like I have some workshops that are available that people can purchase, an online writing course. so that I don't actually have to provide anything or edit a client's manuscript. And obviously they're a lot more affordable. I think my workshops are like $39 or $49. My most expensive course is like less than a couple 100 bucks. But those are ways that I can generate a little bit of revenue without having to do that one-on-one service for clients. So that's a great thing to look into is online courses, digital products. Those are harder to market. I mean, you have to have a lot of like, eyes on your content in order to do that. And obviously selling one workshop a month, like that's not going to really bring a ton of revenue, but it helps, little things like that are good ways to supplement or add to, I should say, add to the revenue that you're generating by one-on-one clients, client work, like book editing or whatever else you're doing in your freelancing business.

So don't be afraid to explore other ways of bringing in revenue. But, my recommendation is to get really comfortable with the editing piece first before you start bringing in other things, before you create an online course, before you sell a workshop, before you do coaching. You've got to get your foundation solid and gain experience working with clients before you do that. I don't think it's a good idea of your time to like, if you've never edited before, to, you know, create a workshop for writers or something. Like I would really recommend gaining some experience first. And then once you feel like you have your bearings as an editor, then you can add in some of these things to grow. So that's a little bit about behind the scenes and the frequently asked questions that I get. It is challenging. I, you know, I'm not going to lie. It's challenging to do this. It's challenging to have that uncertainty and the the up and down roller coaster of clients and revenue. I've never had a steady paycheck in the years that I've been doing this. My paycheck that I take from my business always fluctuates, depending on clients, depending on payment plans, depending on a number of other things. And not everyone is cut out for that. can be stressful for people to have that uncertainty. And there's also, I mean, we don't even touch on, health insurance or other things that you need to have that you don't get because you're not working for someone else. There are a lot of expenses that you have to account for when you are self-employed.

But, if you're just doing this, if you're starting out and doing this as a side hustle, then obviously you don't have to worry about that at this point. But there's nothing wrong, by the way, with continuing to just do editing or any other freelancing thing as a side hustle. Not everyone needs to quit their nine to five. Like my friend, she actually, so she quit her job and was a full-time freelance writer and editor. So she was doing a lot of freelance writing for like magazines and some journalism for a while. And she did it for like maybe six months. and her nervous system freaked out. She had so much anxiety. It was just not for her. So she went back to a 9 to 5 and is much happier doing that and then just doing some editing on the side. That works very well for her. She doesn't have to deal with that up and down and the uncertainty of her revenue stream. So I got to check my time here. Oh, I'm at my time. Okay, well, I hope that was helpful. Thank you for listening.

 

 

Katie Wolf